Day 158: Adventure Is Out There: Pillar Mountain

 The sun came out and showed it's absolute glory today, for the first time since, September?

We wasted NO time to get outside. Brad had to work, but the boys and I had a quick breakfast and then packed up our bags and headed down to the road to hike up a foothill that is quite the symbol for our island: Pillar Mountain. 

Also known as: "The one with the windmills."

This hike is very Old-Womanish. Fairly steep going up, gravel trail, and humid brush on either side until you hit the treeline (about 30 minutes of hiking). The difference though is that there is an almost continuous view heading up, and, due to the onslaught of the endless rain this spring, a stream basically running down the trail the entire way up, which makes for fun little mini-waterfalls and peaceful sounds to add to the views.

The funniest thing about this hike is that about 2/3rds of the way up is a car. A car, sitting on the side of the trail, on a ridge, like it was about to go Dukes of Hazard off the side of the mountain. I'd really, really like to know the story behind this old car. 

Of course, my car geek Calen was delighted beyond measure that there was a car on the mountain. 

And suddenly, a car. 

Calen of course had to give it a full inspection. 

Once you hit the tree line you're basically at the top plateau of the mountain, which is where the windmills sit perched over the city of Kodiak. This is where I like to switchback and hike away from the windmills, just a bit, maybe 100 yards and possibly 200 feet higher than the plateau to the true summit. This gives an epic 360 degree view, plus a really neat overlook of the windmills. 

The boys, often blaise about hiking, were really delighted about this hike and the summit. Calen has a lot of arms out whoops and hollers on the summit, and they were both excited to see the sea planes come in at eye level to us. 

Looking towards the USCG base and our house

Heading down to the Windmills

We decided only to hike to the first windmill instead of reaching all 5, just because we plan on going up here again this summer and we can save it for that. 

The best part of this hike was the conversation. Normally the boys like to talk about video games the whole time (not terrible, but kind of irritating after a while). But this time, we talked about things that happened in books, "what ifs", old classmates that drove us crazy, favorite breakfasts, and what we should pack at Disney World. These are the conversations I love and cherish.

What a perfect day. 

The cutest little "Woolybear" catepillar!

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